Part spreadsheet, part database, and entirely flexible, Airtable gives you the freedom to arrange your work just the way you like. In 2018, Business Insider described this tool as “the app that’s taking Silicon Valley by storm”.
At Business Blueprint, we’ve been using Airtable to handle our magazine planning, social media posting and more!
For more information on how to get started using Airtable, check out this fantastic presentation by Flynn Tesoriero, our in-office tech guru.
If you want to follow along at home, click through the link below to sign up for Airtable for free!
Once you’re done watching, check out the links at the bottom of this article for some free templates we’ve made to get you started.
For even more information on Airtable and to hear what other users have said, read on…
Introducing Airtable
When you use Airtable, you have the choice of grid view, calendar view, ‘Kanban’ (which is a card-style view, similar to Trello) or gallery view. You can even create forms using this tool.
The functionality allows for click and drag additions, plus you can assign jobs to people, make comments, colour code and easily keep track of due dates.
The layout of Airtable makes spreadsheets feel clunky and dated. The user interface gives everything a much clearer appearance. It is easier to find what you’re searching for just by looking.
As Business Insider explains, “Airtable can store information in a spreadsheet that’s visually appealing and easy-to-use. It’s also powerful enough to act as a database that businesses can use for customer-relationship management (CRM), task management, project planning, and tracking inventory.”
How to use Airtable
There are so many ways to use Airtable thanks to its flexibility for customising it to suit your business. There is a basic version for free which allows you to add up to 12,000 items. From there, subscription cost starts from around US$12 per month.
Some uses include:
- Managing social media or content marketing schedules
- Product planning
- User research
- Tracking bugs
- Event planning
- Book planning
- Tracking job applicants
- Business development CRM
- Sorting and filtering customer feedback
- Managing video and production schedules
- Keeping track of personal lists
One of the cool features of Airtable is it already has a lot of ready-made templates for you to choose from. Amongst these are templates for tracking your pet’s medical history and even one for cattle ranching.
An Airtable spreadsheet lets you add and customise fields however you want. To make changes, all you have to do is click and edit. You can also include images and star ratings, plus there is the option to link different sheets/tables to each other.
What people are saying
Review site Capterra has over 900 reviews of Airtable, which gives it an average rating of around 4.5 stars out of five.
As one review shares, “We have about 10 different business processes that we track in Airtable. It’s amazing how flexible it is, and the overall experience has been extremely smooth. It’s especially easy to get new users up to speed quickly because of how intuitive the Airtable is, which is an especially difficult feat given how extensively you can customize everything. They have great online help and video training as well.”
Airtable can also be shared with clients, with another reviewer saying that “By using Airtable we are able to communicate with our clients better using the “Calendar” base. We are able to show our clients what we are doing for them the entire month. Being transparent with them and having this very cool interactive Calendar that shows our reports and ad creative really puts us at a whole new level in their eyes.”
Airtable is described as “Excel on steroids”. One reviewer shared that “Our team went from zero organization to project pipeline wizards.”
The good looks, usability and many features of Airtable make it a winner with businesses of all sizes. To get started, click on the button below…
As promised, here are your free Airtable templates.
Finally, we’d love to hear what you think about Airtable. If this is your first time hearing about Airtable, feel free to share your first impressions. However, if you’ve been using it for some time now, let us know how it has helped grow your business.
